Leave nationalistic BIAS out - Your 10 favourite cities on this planet and why?

[SQflyergirl]

and WHY you like it.

1) London - Quaint, yet bustling. Thoroughly intoxicating and a visit there always cheers me up. Not to mention the fact that it's home to many a friend of mine, SQTalker or otherwise.

2) Melbourne - What a great place great place great place for the race!
Crown Casino/Spring Carnival/Bridge Road Outlets/Chinatown/St Kilda. Never bores me

3) New York - Midtown/Soho/Glitzy bright lights/Broadway. Yummy.

4) Sydney - out on the harbour on a warm summer's day heading out to the gap/Pitt st Mall/The rocks/Double Bay for Dinner - simple pleasures

5) San Francisco - Great weather/Chinatown/Nice people. The whole bay area is yummy.

6) Queenstown -doesn't really qualify as a city, but i added it because I love the place. Don't fly into there from CHC/AKL - drive. Spectacular scenery framed by Lake Wakatipu and Coronet peak. Stunning

7) Chicago - The Mag mile, michigan avenue/The lake/Great Food

8) Rio De Janeiro - Nice and relatively clean unlike the Sao Paulo dump. Great beach/Sugar Loaf mountain. Will NOT wear a bikini there though. Them girls are just out of my league!

9) Paris - what can I say... champs de elysees/That massive LV store/Le Louvre. Sigh....

10) Genf/Geneve/Geneva - Very strange to hear a swiss city included, but i grew to love it. Le Jet d'eau/The main station/The side tiny lanes. Is about as un-swiss as any swiss city can be.

Oh - one thing to add though - most of them have terrible airports though. Must be a link.

[KeithMEL]

1) Melbourne - duh (sorry can't help it ). I love just everything about this city. In particular, it's hard to find good coffee filled with such awesomeness () anywhere else in the world (except maybe France or Italy and probably Austria).

2) NYC - Soho/The Village/Moma, love the bohemian culture and the general buzz of the place. Great food too, and awesome pizza!

3) London - Just heaps of things to do and places to check out. Lived here for a bit as a kid so it's hard not to like the place. Home to many friends of mine and many loveable SQTalkers.

4) Hong Kong - Love the energy of the place. Great nightlife

5) Edinburgh - Just a very beautiful part of the world

6) Chicago - The blues

7) Paris - The shopping!

8) Auckland - Pleasant place to spend a weekend. Great cafe/restaurant scene

9) Boston - Chow-dah, anyone? Lobster rolls at quincy market is da shit!

10) Sydney - nice harbour, and the fact that it's nearby. good fine dining, and one of my fave Djs resides here (If there was anti-sydney bias, it'd not have made it into the top 10... )

[LukeGT]

(not in order)

San Francisco - no explanation required.
Vancouver - I really love Canada.
Hong Kong - life at anytime
Paris - Chic...
London - what i have to say?
Lisbon - A pleasant city... really.
Munchen - One of my favourites
Seoul -
Santiago de Chile - very nice


and of course...
Singapore

[UMD]

In no particular order - well, actually in alphabetical order:

Amsterdam
Bali -I know it is an island but I can't help it since it is such a nice place
Boston
Brussels
Hong Kong
Jakarta
London
Melbourne
San Francisco
Sydney

I could also add Antwerp, Leuvern, Munchen, Singapore, Tokyo, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Paris, and on and on....

[SQFAN]

Cuzco, Peru : A nice little place especially around the main square. Cannot beat drinking beer on the balcony overlooking the main square. Saw the Inti Raymi festival too up the hill. Beautiful country.

Rome : Spent a week there admiring all the cultural aspects. So much to see and nto enough time. Villa D'Este just ousside Rome is worth visting as well.

Florence : A City more romantic compared to Paris. Small, walkable and great atmosphere to bring your significant other.

Venice : Water water everywhere. Hey, maybe next SQ Do at Cipriani. Ok, maybe jyst a drink?

Tokyo : Old and new, so so different and those lovely Japanese gals.

Singapore : Will always be Home for me.

Edinburgh : Haved lived there years ago and liked it.

[globetrekker84]

1) Los Angeles - ideal year-round weather - (from my place) 1 hour north and you're in the mountains, 1 hour west and you're at the beach, 1 hour east and you're in the desert

2) San Francisco Bay area (except Berkeley) - very urbanized culture, great food, great views.

3) New York City - the energy and the life of human civilization. Food too.

4) London - the center of the former British Empire - so much history and culture and now a melting pot of every culture in the world

5) Sydney - the "other" city by the bay. Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. 'Nuff said.

6) Melbourne - the quieter and more refined Australian cultural capital. Great food and the entry to the Great Ocean Road.

7) Tokyo - where the 21st century and 18th century can co-exist in harmony.

8) Osaka/Kyoto/Kansai Region - where old Japan still exists not to mention the incredibly sweet and soft water.

9) Paris - one of the fashion capitals of the world and home to great French food

10) Barcelona - cultural capital of Catalonia and home to many UNESCO World Heritage sites, including the works of Antoni Gaudí.

Notable Mentions:

• Aix-en-Provence
• Brussels
• Athens
• Luzern
• Geneva
• Zurich
• Zermatt
• Rome
• Firenze
• Pisa
• Venice
• Milan
• Bilbao
• Vienna
• Prague
• Hiroshima
• Fukuoka
• Hong Kong
• Bangkok
• Singapore
• Kuala Lumpur
• Medan
• Jakarta
• Bali
• Cairns
• Seattle
• Portland, OR
• Las Vegas
• San Diego
• Phoenix/Scottsdale
• New Orleans
• Hawai'i
• Jackson Hole
• Mammoth Lakes
• Boston

[SQflyergirl]

1) Los Angeles 1 hour west and you're at the beach

2 hours west and you'd better be a good swimmer....

[LukeGT]

3 hours west and you can send a "may day "

[jhm]

So many different cities mentioned in this thread but other than Hong Kong, no other city in China ?

OK, I'm a self-confessed Sinophile, there are many things to dislike (or even hate) about China (e.g. toilets, pollution, lack of courtesy etc) and leaving aside political and human rights issues ... but:

* the country is vast and there's so much to see (before it gets overwhelemed by tourism)

* the rate of development in the big cities is astounding

* in the big cities, you can try Chinese food from all over the country for not very much money (unlike, say, in London where it's mostly Cantonese with a small number of restaurants specialising - not very well - in other Chinese regional cuisine)

* there ARE friendly and nice Chinese people around (amongst everyone else trying to rip you off )

* IF you have money, you get treated very well (much better than in the west IMO) in restaurants, shops etc

* the current GBP/CNY exchange rate goes a long way to making life very comfortable

Given the above, I'll name Beijing and Shanghai as two of my choices.

[AndrewSQ011]

1. Los Angeles-good weather (I live right under BUR [Burbank Airport] and LAX airspace and only between 45 mins to 1 hour to the beach or LAX)

2. Singapore- I like the enivornment

3. Kuala Lumpur- Love KLIA

4. Penang- I like the restaurants there and my mom's sister lives there

5. Melbourne- I like the airport and one of my cousins lives there

6. Syndey- Love the Opera House

7. Taipei- Love TPE

8. London- Looks good and still has "medieval" looking structures

9. Vancover- My aunt lives there and the place looks nice

10. Las Vegas- Love LAS because you can see the "Luxor" hotel from the airport

[Lobster]

1. Las Vegas - Sin city need I say more

2. Cape Town - Just stunningly beautiful

3. Oxford - OK not one of the worlds great cities but it is home

4. Sarajevo - I nice little city (despite the war damage) and I have had some great times there

5. Melbourne - Very cool place

6. San Fransisco - By far the best city in the USA.

7. Prague - Beautiful architecture and cheap beer.

8. Venice - Beautiful architecture and no cars

9. Bangkok - Full of life

10. Singapore - The most efficient city in the world

[jhm]

3. Oxford - OK not one of the worlds great cities but it is home

Surely the ivory towers and dreaming spires must count for something ?

Of course, the Other Place is better but I'm somewhat bias , e.g., after the exams, punting along the Backs at the crack of dawn and watching the first rays of sunlight appear over King's Chapel and the other buildings. Magic!

[KeithMEL]

Given the above, I'll name Beijing and Shanghai as two of my choices.

I'm visiting Shanghai in June. Seems to be a cool place by all accounts. Will be my 2nd time in China - 1st time was a school fieldtrip to Beijing back in 2000.

[AndrewSQ011]

I'm visiting Shanghai in June. Seems to be a cool place by all accounts.

Good luck on your trip!!!!

[9V-JKL]

I'm visiting Shanghai in June. Seems to be a cool place by all accounts.

Way way way too crowded for me. Great for watching F1 but else not much more for me other than the xiao long bao
Just a tip. Don't waste yr money going up the Oriental Pearl Tower, go a few blocks away to the 87th floor lounge at the Jin Mao Hyatt and have a drink there instead. Same view but in much better surroundings and comfort.